By Akeem Busari

It was another victorious outing for Nigeria on the continental stage as the national U16 female basketball 3v3 team, claimed gold medal in Dakar, Senegal at the DAKAR EN JAUX 2024 Festival.

The Nigerian girls who had earlier claimed a silver medal in Accra, Ghana during the All Africa Games, defeated host country, Senegal 11-8 in the final to become champions.Speaking after the final game, Nigeria’s head of delegation and team coordinator, Victor Okoro, praised the girls for putting up spectacular displays throughout the games.

“I’m very proud of this team. I am also happy that once again, they have made Nigeria proud on the international stage,” he remarked.Okoro, a board member of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, noted that the recent feats of the team is a further testament to the untiring efforts of the NBBF, led by Engr. Musa Kida to continually develop the game in at levels, for the benefits of Nigeria.

The Director General of Lagos State Sports Commission, Lekan Fatodu, has said the state as a sports hub will not relent in its efforts in contributing to the knowledge of Games Masters/Mistresses and Physical Education teachers in order to promote a sustainable and effective sports development at the grassroots level.

The three-day clinic named “Train the Trainer” was designed by the Lagos State Sports Commission to train Physical Education teachers on the fundamentals of cricket, other basic techniques they need to be acquainted with as the first point of contact to the students.

Speaking eloquently while watching the practice game of the Games Masters/Mistresses, Lekan Fatodu described the initiative as a developmental processes in contributing to the sustainable growth of sports at the school level.

He stated, “what we are trying to do is the need and necessity to improve to hone the skills of our experts, particularly in schools. Right now, we are very focus about developing sports not just from the grassroots: we are going back to school”.

“We are pooling Games Masters/Mistresses together in a refresher course in different sporting areas.We are doing the clinic in around cricket, so that we can be able to improve their skills and have better understanding of youths development and trends in sports”, said Fatodu DG LSSC.

Speaking further, Fatodu explained that the state will continue to subscribe to many initiatives on the back of the game while encouraging the participants to take the lessons learnt seriously in order to teach their students on the values associated with cricket

The clinic began on the 31st of October, and ended yesterday, 2nd November, 2024, at the University of Lagos Cricket Oval, Akoka, Lagos, where over 30 Games Masters/Mistresses from different schools were took on the rudiments of cricket: to inculcate the right values into the students through the instrumentality of sports and continues on the momentum of school sports development.

The Cleveland Cavaliers extended their best start to an NBA season with a 10th successive victory by beating the Golden State Warriors 136-117.

Darius Garland scored a game-high 27 points for the Cavs, who became only the 15th team to start with a 10-0 record.

Cleveland dominated from the outset and led 83-42 at half-time, with Stephen Curry managing just 12 points for the Warriors whose five-game winning streak was halted.

“10-0 is a magic number,” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson said. “We’re playing really good basketball and I’m just really pleased where the group is.

“I was worried about tonight – they’re 7-1 and rolling and they’re coming in here, they’re champions and they’re going to try and knock our block off.

“The way we came out tonight – that surprised me, how ready we were, how hungry we were.”

Elsewhere, Jayson Tatum scored 33 points as reigning champions the Boston Celtics earned a 108-104 overtime win against the Brooklyn Nets.

Boston, who suffered a first loss in their previous game against the Warriors, did not lead until the fourth quarter before sealing the victory in overtime after the match was tied 94-94 at the end of normal time.

The Phoenix Suns edged past the Dallas Mavericks 114-113 with Jusuf Nurkic netting a match-winning free throw with 0.8 seconds left.

The Los Angeles Lakers bounced back from four defeats in five on the road to beat the Philadelphia 76ers 116-106 at home.

Anthony Davis scored 31 points for the Lakers while LeBron James recorded the 114th triple-double of his career with 21 points, 13 assists and 12 rebounds.